SMILING LIKE THE STO. NIÑO Rev. Patrick Vance S. Nogoy, SJ Feast of the Sto. Niño January 17, 2016 Growing up, I was taught to pray to the Sto. Niño before I sleep. I remember whispering simple petitions for good health, new toys, and gratitude for family and friends. It did not cross my mind to wonder how God can be such a little kid robed in red and gold vestment and adorned with crown and scepter, holding the world in his tiny hands. What stuck with me was his child-like smile—friendly, sincere, and innocent. That was enough to put me to peaceful sleep. As Christmas cheer and glow give way to the light of Ordinary Time, the child Jesus begins growing up. Gone are the magic of the stars, majesty of angels, and magnanimous gifts from the Magi. In the Gospel, God grows up in regular fashion, embracing the routine of Israelite religious festivities and learning from among family and teachers of His chosen people. What I find remarkable is how God is at ease with the ordinary, how comfortable He can be in growing up, and how vulnerable He becomes in his engagement with humanity. The light Isaiah prophesied in the first reading does not overwhelm but is rather friendly. It does not glitter, trying to catch attention. It illumines without discrimination and discreetly carves a home among those who live in darkness. The child Jesus as light is friendly, knows how to live with family, friends, and community through obedience. His friendliness is not without sincerity. He engages the teachers of the Law in the Temple with respect, despite being a mere child. Discovering and growing in truth demands sincerity. The child Jesus as light is sincere in his search for truth given his respectful dialogue with experts. Illuminating one another in dialogue instead of ripping and grandstanding in debates leads to a collaborative effort in search for truth. Here, the teachers of the law marvel at the child Jesus’ wisdom because His questions and answers have deepened the search for truth of Israelite faith. Often, the energy of youth is enticed by recklessness, distrust of authority and tradition, and unstable trends. This leads to an isolated and meandering journey to the truth. On the other hand, those deemed by society as politically insignificant and most vulnerable are voices often unheard or marginalized. Dialogue does not happen because it is overshadowed by insecurities and display of power. Sincere search for truth leads to collaboration, listening to the voices of the least, lost, and last. Sincere friendship is predicated in innocence. Often, innocence is mistaken for naiveté. Yet, innocence, to put simply, is the absence of malice. In God’s choice to live among us, we are gifted with the experience of innocent light. This light restores our own innocence through the path of selfless love. The first instance of such innocence ironically is the child Jesus’ hidden years of practicing obedience. The heart of obedience is authentic listening. Listening, as much as possible, should be without malice. We can only grow in listening and even beg for it as grace, especially when we are caught in the situations demanding a significant amount of self-sacrifice. Similarly, light does not call attention to itself; its purpose is to bridge the object and the source. In its shining, it decreases, giving way to the union of source and object. Similarly, the child Jesus’ innocence serves as a bridge, uniting God and people. Without malice, the child Jesus is able to find God through his parents, teachers, and community through obedience. He acts like light, decreasing, in order for God and people to find one another through Him. I cannot recall how many of my personal petitions were granted by the Sto. Niño. I was not able to cultivate a personal devotion, enough for me to count. There are times when I thought I outgrew such image of God. Yet, I am still drawn to Him, every now and then. His smile reminds me how a powerful God can be disarming as a child. Light beams in His smile, the kind of light that is friendly, sincere, and innocent. It is hard to find such smile nowadays and our yearning can only groan in the darkness of despair, violence, betrayal, and suffering we experience almost daily. It does not hurt to bring this longing on our knees to the Sto. Niño before we sleep. More than the petitions for health, new toys, and gratitude for family and friends, may the child Jesus grant us the same grace of child-like smile—friendly, sincere, and innocent—the kind of smile that makes of us faithful bearers of the light of faith to one another and to the world. Rev. Pat is currently my group guide. He is a Jesuit deacon waiting for his priestly ordination in a few months time. This homily was taken from the Philippine Jesuit websites' Word Made Fresh. Click here for the article.
*Image taken from Constantine Agustin's Flickr page.
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The Pope's January Intentions (from the Apostleship of Prayer: The Pope's Worldwide Network of Prayer) Universal: Interreligious Dialogue That sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice. Evangelization: Christian Unity That by means of dialogue and fraternal charity and with the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians may overcome divisions. The video can be found on ThePopeVideo.org. Please visit that site for more updates on the Pope's intentions via YouTube video.
Homily for the Solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord At the turn of the 21st century, five planets (i.e. Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter) aligned themselves more or less within a quadrant (actually 50 degrees) of the night sky. I remember bringing out our telescopes at the Manila Observatory to show people the unusual sight. One common reaction to this planetary “alignment” was alarm. It came from those who couldn’t get Y2K out of their system, fearing erroneously that the concerted gravitational pull of these planets would zap us out of orbit. The other reaction came from the optimists who associated the alignment of these celestial “wanderers” with good fortune. Well, the world did not end in 2000, which was good. But the dot-com (or internet) bubble burst spectacularly in 2000, bad. There are epiphanies and there are epiphanies. Some choose to divine their fate and future from forces outside themselves, such as stars or tea leaves that they endow with power to predict and even change the course of their lives. The solemnity of the Epiphany today recalls how wise men from the East came to learn about the birth of the Christ-child not by direct angelic announcement but through the more hushed calculation of the constellations (i.e. the Christmas star over Bethlehem, or was it a comet or some form of planetary or stellar alignment). The point of the magi story however has nothing to do with how the epiphany happens. It has everything to do with what (or who) is revealed, the Mystery of the divinity that is unveiled and that continues to unveil itself in our lives today. That the star was the guide to the learned men’s calculated approach to God only meant that the event was of universal and cosmic significance. Starlight after all is not local or limited or exclusive. Gaze at the universe long enough and you just might discover God or this quite ineffable longing for God. If the anomalous arrangement of the heavens prompts these learned outsiders to seek God, it is the anomaly in the gifts they bring that breaks the near-universal expectations and notions of God that have long been held by insiders or believers. That third and outlier gift is myrrh. It is not the usual item in your gift registry. Gold and incense are prophesied in Isaiah, the first reading today. But not myrrh. In the story of the magi, three gifts are given to the Christ-child: gold for a king who presides over his realm, incense for a priest who mediates between God and man, and myrrh for someone destined to die. These are gifts that are meant to reveal and recognize the recipient in the manger. They are radical markers of the identity of the Redeemer-child as much as they are signs of who we are as giver of these gifts. In effect, these gifts are three powers that are offered back to us who bear the image and likeness of the Christ-child. The three powers, which the Child returns to us to give to one another, are the power to lead, to mediate, and to suffer. We are given the power to lead and shepherd the flock entrusted to us. This is the gift of true leadership, which is in such short supply in our society. False shepherds are easily ensnared by power and wealth. Herods abound who are motivated by greed and envy and fear. We are asked to lead our lives and others the way Christ leads us selflessly, courageously, out of love. We are given the power to mediate between God and his people. This is the gift of our shared priesthood, the gift of our ordained mission at baptism to mirror God to each other and to mirror each other to God. We are called to bridge the human and the divine, to mediate mercy and the goodness of God to one another out of love. We are given the power to suffer, the power to proclaim truth and serve justice, the power to keep faith, bring hope, and make peace, the power to bear compassion for those who suffer. This is the gift of the cross, which is hardly a gift if not borne out of love. We are invited to suffer love, to be bearers of love amid the ruins, a love that is self-emptying and enduring and redeeming. In the Epiphany, planetary or stellar alignment is not material to the mystery. The only alignment worth heedinghappens when heaven’s gifts are seen to constellate with those of ours. It is this gracious alignment of gifts and powers, the convergence of heaven and earth in our lives that is the epiphany we celebrate today. As we surrender gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh to God, to us he surrenders the power to lead and mediate and suffer love. Fr. Villarin is currently the President of the Ateneo de Manila University. This homily was lifted from the website of the Ateneo (Click here). His homilies are featured in the same website and the Philippine Star.
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PANDASALIn Filipino, pandasal means something that may be used for prayer. It is also a play of words that sounds like the Filipino breakfast staple - pandesal. ArchivesCategories |